Mora takes high road in KJR interview

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Ousted Seattle Seahawks coach Jim Mora appeared on 950 KJR-AM on Monday afternoon and said there was one thing he’d do differently if he could.

“Win more games,” Mora told Dave “Softy” Mahler and Hugh Millen in an hour-long sit down in the KJR studio.

Seahawks coach Jim Mora was fired by the Seahawks on Friday after the conclusion of his first season. (Getty Images/Otto Greule Jr.)

There was a bit of irony in the situation, given Mora wound up in Seattle only after being fired by the Atlanta Falcons after appearing on Mahler and Millen’s radio show and proclaiming the University of Washington as his dream job.

Mora didn’t offend anyone this time. He cast no stones toward his players or even CEO Tod Leiweke, who he called a friend and “a great man.”

He said one way to look at the hiring of Pete Carroll away from USC is that, as a University of Washington graduate, it might be a good thing for Husky football.

Mora said Leiweke told him it was owner Paul Allen’s call that he be dismissed so the team could go a different direction and the closest he got to casting aspersions was when asked about being trotted out for a Wednesday post-season press conference when the team obviously was already looking to go a new direction.

“If you conduct yourself in an honest way, you’ll be fine,” he said. “If you’re sneaky and suspicious and self-serving, it’ll get you. Maybe not immediately, but in the end, you’ll pay.”

Mora, who will be paid the remaining $12 million left on his contract, said he doesn’t know what his future holds. He said he’s been contacted about some broadcasting opportunities and “well see which way I go.”

He said the toughest thing about his dismissal was not getting the opportunity to finish the task of turning the franchise back around, which he was confident he’d complete if given time.

But he declined to speak specifically about players’ performances or what went wrong, saying his team had “laid it on the line” every game, even if they didn’t always play up to their full potential.

He said wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh was the first to contact him after his firing and that nearly 100 percent of the players had reached out to him over the weekend.

“I had these guys where I wanted them and they were buying in,” he said.

As for criticism of offensive coordinator Greg Knapp from Houshmandzadeh and Deion Branch, Mora said: “It’s very easy for football players — and I”m not talking about T.J. and Deion — it’s very easy when things are going wrong as human beings to point fingers in another direction. That’s all I say about that.”

And, no, he wasn’t about to let Mahler raise a question about whether he’d be interested some day in coaching at the University of Washington.

“Don’t even go there,” he said. “I am a big fan of Steve Sarkisian. My hope is that one day there’s a Steve Sarkisian Center just like the Don James Center.”